Early in my blogging journey, I wrote a multi-part series about launching my first digital product. When I asked readers what they wanted to hear about next, the response was overwhelming. People wanted to know about the entire process: product creation, outsourcing, packaging, pricing, sales pages, payment processing, and marketing. That single question shaped weeks of content and drove more engagement than anything I had published before.
Asking your audience what they want is the simplest content strategy there is. It is also the one most people skip.
Why Audience Input Beats Guessing
When you create content in a vacuum, you are guessing about what your audience needs. Sometimes you guess right. More often, you spend hours creating something that generates crickets while the questions your audience actually has go unanswered.
Asking your audience directly solves this problem. It also does several other things simultaneously:
- It builds engagement. When people contribute ideas, they feel invested in your content. They are more likely to read, share, and comment on posts they helped inspire.
- It validates demand. If twenty people ask the same question, you know there is an audience for that content before you write a single word.
- It reveals language. The exact words your audience uses to describe their problems are the keywords you should be targeting in your content and SEO strategy.
- It creates a feedback loop. The more you listen and respond, the more your audience trusts that you are paying attention. That trust compounds over time.
Practical Ways to Get Audience Input in 2026
The tools for gathering audience feedback are better than they have ever been. Here are the methods that work best:
- Email surveys. Send a simple one-question email to your list: “What is the biggest challenge you are facing with [your topic] right now?” The responses will give you months of content ideas.
- Social media polls. Instagram Stories, Twitter polls, LinkedIn polls, and YouTube Community posts make it easy to ask quick questions and get instant feedback.
- Comment prompts. End every blog post or podcast episode with a specific question. Not “what do you think?” but something targeted like “which of these three topics should I cover next?”
- Voice messages. Set up a voicemail line or use a tool like SpeakPipe to let your audience record questions. This is particularly powerful for podcasters.
- Analytics data. Your search console data and site analytics show you what people are already searching for when they find your content. Let the data tell you what to create next.
The Content Calendar Hack
Here is a simple system. Once a month, ask your audience one question about what they need help with. Collect the responses. Group them into themes. Turn each theme into a piece of content. You now have a content calendar built entirely around proven demand instead of guesswork.
Your audience will tell you exactly what to create. All you have to do is ask.
Hello Mark – good stimulating question. Coming from someone who has a successful RE consulting business, but has generally been more miss than hit in internet marketing, I think a “how to do it” rather than “what to do” digital product is something that would be beneficial and potentially lucrative. I think the productivity log-jam for most folks comes at the start of the process, rather than the fine-tweeking of something. So, while I guess it might not be considered digital, I think a “how to” implement an Adsense campaign for example would be an in demand product.
I generally get the feeling that people are attracted to your site and style because you’re someone that can be trusted to implement something concrete and real, versus some vague concept that is over-generalized and over-hyped to death. Thanks!
Sorry, video tutorial should go after “how to” and before implement. Need more coffee – I think most would consider video a digital product!
Hey Mark! I’m very interested in learning from your travels to bringing a product from concept to reality. I’d particularly like to know more about Clickbank and how you set things up there. I recall a comment you made about them as you were launching your product. Was timing the only obstacle?
Kent;
Thanks for the nice comments.
I have actually been thinking about doing a blog post series on cranking up an adsense site — one step at a time. Do you think people would be interested in that?
Thanks,
Mark
@Mark — ClickBank has been interesting. They manually apporve your landing page and thank you page. You need to pay the $50 to get set up. All of that took longer (days) that I expected. Still, it was not to bad. I will add a CB post to the list. Thanks for the idea.
Hi Mark,
IMHO the best way to learn is to make errors and learn how to fix them.
So FIRST I want to know what you did wrong and why it was wrong.
And SECOND i want to know how to do the entire process right, I love ToDo-list (aka Cheetsheets) which brake up the entire work in chunks, these have several advantages:
1. you have a clear straight path to follow
2. it fights that overhelming sense of “this is to big for me and I don’t know where to start” (aka procrastination)
3. you don’t forget an important step
4. you don’t have to think about the next step, you have just to focus on your current step
5. you can work at it in small timechunks when you have some spare time without loosing the thread
6. it saves you a lot of time
7. it permits you to clearly plan what and when you can externalize some work
8. you can automate some steps
…should I go on ?
ciao
alexander
Mark – yes, absolutely, I think that would be a winner and ties in with Alexander’s post regarding cheatsheets, or how to break down a fairly mundane task into sizable chunks – the old How do you eat an Elephant? question – one bite at a time (presuming you know what you’re doing).
I have actually been thinking about doing a blog post series on cranking up an adsense site — one step at a time. Do you think people would be interested in that?
YES. I love when somebody takes my by the hands thru a process, what can you wish more to get started and out of procrastination ?
ciao
alex
@Kent and @Alex — I am pleased to announce that you both win copies of Niche AdSense Themes for WordPress. Please contact me directly to claim your prize.
I have decided to leave this contest open for a while. Anyone else with an outstanding comment may win a copy — so keep those cards and letters coming.
Hi Mark,
The step by step process of what you’re doing without any missing ‘little bits’ would be a precious resource especially for a newbie.
I’m thinking a little bit longer term perhaps, but after detailing the steps to the point at Clickbank I would be very interested to know how you go about promoting the product and from there which avenues collected the most return.
For example:
*If you focus on actively seeking affiliates…what percentage do the affiliates generate of your sales.
*For your own promotion, does a soft sell to your list via email return more than sending them straight to the sales page.
*If you followed a low cost (if one exists??!!?) PPC campaign what were the returns…. and what were the returns between a prospect sent directly to the sales page versus a more stepped out process.
And most importantly what your opinions are on the results, ie why one method probably worked over another.
So that is the sort of information I’d be so excited to see from your real life example as it happens in the future.
Goodluck with it.
Michelle.
Hi Mark,
Been looking around the net and studying your wordpress themes and by far its the best one I’ve seen (including the packaged bonuses). Getting ready to get it for myself now. 🙂
The package consists of 12 header/footer themes for some niches and I believe you can also provide the buyer with some blank headers.
I can pretty find my way around Photoshop so would I be able to create my own custom themes and footers? If so, how would I go about using the new graphics in my themes?
How about giving the buyer an option, aside form the original 12 and blank headers, for further customization? What I mean is the option to have a customs header for their particular niche. If you’re too busy to do the graphics yourself, maybe choose a designer to recommend. This would also be another source of revenue for you for giving leads to that designer. What do you think?
Some suggestions for future releases of the package would be instructions on how to include an opt-in area so the owner has the option to build a list for his niche. I’m not sure if this could be done with a plug-in or a subscription with an autoresponder company and using the text widget.
Speaking of plug-ins, maybe you could also include a list of your recommended and compatible plug-ins for the themes. This would add more value to the package.
Cheers,
Carlos